The Ouachita Citizen, Friday, October 4, 1946, Page 1
TRAVELERS REST MANOR IS RAZED
Mrs. McGuire Will Build Modern Home at Site of Landmark
“Travelers Rest,” the ancient home of the McGuires and one of the oldest man-made landmarks in North Louisiana, has been completely razed to make way for a new and modern home, the Citizen learned this week from Mrs. Kate McGuire, the present owner.
Travelers Rest is located on the Old Arkansas Road a short distance west of the McGuire park golf course. (note: Dr. E. Russ Williams says it stood in the 800 block of Arkansas Road)
The plantation that later became known as Travelers Rest was originally the home of the Hasley family, after whom the present city cemetery was named. The Hasley lands stretched from old Trenton on the Ouachita river to a point west of the cemetery.
The Hasley family built a part of the plantation house, and some time before the War Between the States Major Thomas McGuire purchased the property and constructed the rest of the home. It was he who named it Travelers Rest.
Back in the old days it was the scene of numerous social functions that attracted guests from far and near. The McGuires were lavish hosts, and as Mrs. Kate McGuire said, “We never knew whom we were cooking for.”
Mrs. McGuire went to the plantation in 1906 to accept a position as a bookkeeper, and in 1921 she married Herman McGuire, a prominent West Monroe man who died in 1940. There are numerous residents of this section who recall that the wedding was one of the most elaborate functions of its kind ever held in North Louisiana.
Mrs. McGuire said that she will build a new home on the site of Travelers Rest as soon as materials are available.
“The old place was so badly run down and so ancient that it just couldn’t be repaired satisfactorily,” said mrs. McGuire, “and I decided it would be best to rebuild in its place a completely new and modern house.”
The site today is a mass of gnarled cedars, pecans and flowering plants. In the center of the spot where the house stood is a sunken place that in olden times was a large cellar, now almost filled with bricks from the old chimneys. Mrs. McGuire said the cellar had been abandoned several years before she went to Travelers Rest.
Major McGuire died in 1918, and at that time he estimated that Travelers Rest was at least 80 years old, which today would make it 108 years old.
In recent years a large part of the McGuire lands have been subdivided and sold as home sites. Today there are numerous fine homes in the vicinity and more are being built. Within recent months the old gravel pits just east of Travelers Rest have been filled in.
A take-away I get from this article is that if the house was 108 years old, it dated to the late 1830’s. That means Phinetta and her first husband, Lemuel Newman built it. Another thing I noticed is that according to Dr. Williams’ book Founding Families of the Ouachita Valley, Mr. McGuire bought the home in 1879 after Phinetta passed away.
Ouachita Parish History Tidbits 